Parks and Recreation St. Louis Style

If Civic Progress, CityArchRiver2015 Foundation, City of St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley get their way, we'll all by paying an additional 0.1875% sales tax in the near future. Why? A quiet addition to a bill in the state legislature would put the tax increase to a popular vote, with proceeds providing funds to issue $120M in bonds for the Arch grounds renovation project and additional funding for regional parks and trails.

The Post-Dispatch only gets at a small part of the issue when the editorial board takes exception to how the bill was introduced in the state legislature, offering a rather soft rebuke. The editorial glad hands project organizers, stating that they "have taken great pains to share their vision with citizens (and) seek input on new designs." This simply is not true. The design as it stands is not the result of public input. (Who decided it is a good idea to remove eight blocks of city streets to "better connect" the city to the riverfront?)

In addition to the initial legislative process, the initiative itself is flawed and represents a bait and switch by project organizers. To date, the source of funding has been intentionally vague, most often described as "a combination of government and private sources." Additional detail sometimes included mention of "foundations, companies and individuals." While not definitively ruling out the option, that clearly doesn't sound like a local sales tax.